Just thinking a little

My impressions of Rick Perry could hardly
be more negative. His mannerisms, whether "natural" or put on, strike me
as a synthesis of John Wayne and Ronald Reagan. When he speaks, his
content and message remind me much of George Wallace. And when he waves a
revolver in the air, it turns me -- a life long gun person -- totally
off.

If, Cosmos forbid, he's going to get anywhere on
the national stage, he's going to need the support of vastly more than simply
the admittedly too-large hard-right/fundamentalist coven in
the Republican party. He'll need lots of independents and plenty
of disaffected Democrats. It's hard to see most genuine independents
being led around by a demagogic Pied Piper and it seems very doubtful that
the now rapidly increasing group of disaffected Demos will see him as any
positive beacon.

Let's hope I'm right on
this.

Our almost month long heat wave has
ended. Brush and timber fires are still much on the scene. Idaho has
just initiated a broad and uninhibited wolf hunt -- thanks to a
Congressional mandate (and the Obama administration's earlier efforts to remove
wolves from Federal protection). There've been a couple of human deaths
via Grizzly attacks -- fortunately the bears involved remain at large -- and
mountain lions are becoming more conspicuous in some areas. A group
of three showed up the other day in the yard of a rural family south of
here.

We like all of these animal entities and their
behaviorisms and we aren't worried.

See
this on the new (2011), expanded and updated edition of my book,Jackson
Mississippi -- the classic and fully detailed account of the historic and
bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm

And see Shooting Lupus, now expanded July 2011 --
my account of killing a very deadly disease in an eight year war.
Systemic Lupus hasa predatory preference for Native Americans, Blacks,
Chicanos, someAsian groups, and women in general. It's a civil rights
issue.http://hunterbear.org/shooting_lupus.htm

__._,_.___

"[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt."
--Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31

Revised: Cuban 5 Film Festival NYC

In 2006, President Ricardo Alarcon of the Cuban parliament, called for the period of time between September 12th through October 6th, to be a time to call attention to the case of the Cuban 5; 5 U.S. held political prisoners incarcerated for 13 years for fighting against terrorism in the United States and Cuba. In New York City, we extend the time frame by 6 days to make it a full month, Sept. 12th-Oct. 12th.

This year, The Popular Education Project to Free the Cuban 5 is organizing a film festival and a series of forums to educate, organize and mobilize for the freedom of these innocent men!

Please Support our efforts! Contact us if you want to host a film showing or a forum! Email us at: freethecuban5 <at> gmail.com or call 718-601-4751

Whether dismissed as a relic or revered as a savior, all agree that Fidel Castro, nearing 44 years as the leader of Cuba, is one of the most influential and controversial figures of our time. Rarely are Americans given a chance to see inside the world of this socialist leader. The new documentary film FIDEL by Estela Bravo offers a unique opportunity to view the man through exclusive interviews with Castro himself, historians, public figures and close friends, with rare footage from the Cuban State archives.

Alice Walker, Harry Belafonte, and Sydney Pollack discuss Fidel as a person, while former and current US government figures including Arthur Schlesinger, Ramsey Clark, Wayne Smith, Congressman Charles Rangel and a former CIA agent offer political and historical perspectives on Castro and the long-standing US embargo against Cuba. Family members and close friends, including Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez,
offer a window into the rarely seen personal life of Fidel.

Bravo's camera captures Fidel Castro swimming with bodyguards, visiting his childhood home and school, joking with Nelson Mandela, Ted Turner and Muhammad Ali, meeting Elian Gonzalez, and celebrating his birthday with members of the Buena Vista Social Club. Juxtaposing the personal anecdotal with history of the Cuban revolution and the fight to survive the post-Soviet period, FIDEL tells a previously untold story and presents a new view of this compelling figure.

Friday Sept. 23rd, 2011 at 7pm

Pathfinder Books 306 W. 37th St. (Btwn. 8th-9th Ave.)

Take the A,C,E, S, N, R, Q, 1, 2, 3, or 7 trains to 42nd St. Times Square

La Maestra:

The Cuban Literacy Campaign of 1961 dramatically changed the nation’s literacy levels within one year by organizing over 100,000 volunteers – over half of who were women – to teach classes in the rural areas of the country. In 2005, this documentary crew began collecting testimonies of women literacy teachers, exploring how this experience influenced their lives & sense of self, as well as the future of their nation.

Sponsored by the Militant Labor Forum!

Friday Sept. 30th, 2011 at 7pm-10pm

Casa de Las Americas 182 E. 111th St. (Btwn. Lexington and Third Ave.)

Take the 6 train to E. 110th St.

Suggested donation: $5 (No one will be turned away)

¡Salud!:

A timely examination of human values and the health issues that affect us all, ¡Salud!looks at the curious case of Cuba, a cash-strapped country with what the BBC calls ‘one of the world’s best health systems.’ From the shores of Africa to the Americas, !Salud!hits the road with some of the 28,000 Cuban health professionals serving in 68 countries, and explores the hearts and minds of international medical students in Cuba -- now numbering 30,000, including nearly 100 from the USA. Their stories plus testimony from experts around the world bring home the competing agendas that mark the battle for global health—and the complex realities confronting the movement to make healthcare everyone’s birth right.

A feature documentary, ¡Salud! is directed by Academy Award nominee Connie Field and co-produced by Gail Reed. The film spans three continents to look at the philosophy and health professionals placing Cuba on the map in the worldwide movement to make health care a global birthright. Today, Cubans are among the world’s healthiest people, despite the island’s poverty. Cuba’s volunteer corps now posts 28,000 health professionals in 68 countries; and Cuban medical schools will graduate an unprecedented 100,000 new doctors from developing countries over the next decade.

Friday Oct. 7th, 2011 at 7pm-10pm

Casa de Las Americas 182 E. 111th St. (Btwn. Lexington and Third Ave.)

Take the 6 train to E. 110th St.

Suggested donation: $5 (No one will be turned away)

638 Ways to Kill Castro:

638 Ways To Kill Castro is a political documentary exploring the history of the relationship between the U.S. government and Cuba, told via the countless attempts to kill Fidel Castro. From exploding cigars to femme fatales; a radio station rigged with noxious gas to a poison syringe posing as an innocuous ballpoint pen, those who tried to kill Castro reveal every conceivable method of assassination.

On the trail of Castro's would-be killers, the filmmakers meet a series of extraordinary characters, including two men accused of being terrorists, but living free in America. Orlando Bosch, who many consider to be the greatest terrorist in the northern hemisphere, is found living peacefully in his Miami home, with his adoring family. Antonio Veciana, the Cuban American who got the closest to killing Castro on three occasions, now runs a marine store in Miami. Both men were supported and funded by the United States, and the CIA
even sought the help of the Mafia, hoping they would be able to succeed where Bosch and Veciana had failed.

A exciting detective thriller, 638 Ways To Kill Castro is a Silver River production for Britain's Channel 4!

__._,_.___

"[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt."
--Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31

See
this on the new (2011), expanded and updated edition of my book,Jackson
Mississippi -- the classic and fully detailed account of the historic and
bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm

And see Shooting Lupus, now expanded July 2011 --
my account of killing a very deadly disease in an eight year war.
Systemic Lupus hasa predatory preference for Native Americans, Blacks,
Chicanos, someAsian groups, and women in general. It's a civil rights
issue.http://hunterbear.org/shooting_lupus.htm

__._,_.___

"[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt."
--Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31

Friday, September 2, 2011

This article appears in the
September 2011 edition ofSocialist
Actionnewspaper.

Tragically, Libya’s
short-lived February 2011 Arab Spring was rapidly transformed into a six-month
imperialist-led onslaught that wrought death and destruction on the Libyan
people.

The “no fly zone” Resolution
1973, approved 10-0 by the UN Security Council on March 17, was immediately
followed by more than 20,000, and still ongoing, sorties by U.S./NATO warplanes
against the forces of the Libyan dictator, Col. Muammar Gadhafi. These were
complemented by drone strikes and artillery bombardments from NATO’s armada,
centered on a French aircraft carrier anchored off Libya’s
coast.

The UN “no-fly zone”
resolution, never more than a license for the wholesale destruction of Libya’s
military apparatus and much of Tripoli’s infrastructure—including its water and
fuel supplies, electricity, schools, hospitals, and residential
neighborhoods—was a Euro-American declaration of war. “Humanitarian wars”
conducted by the world's superpowers will never benefit the oppressed masses in
Libya or anywhere else.

In the assault on Tripoli in
the last days of the war, Gadhafi’s estimated 65,000 troops were pulverized by
an intensive air and sea bombing campaign that NATO commanders estimate to have
“degraded”—that is, killed, wounded, or scattered—some 50 percent of his
forces.The remainder is
thought to have retreated to Libyan cities and towns that continue to support
the Gadhafi regime. These are today being bombed with
impunity.

Estimates of the number of
Gadhafi soldiers killed outright on just one day by this late-August intensive
bombardment exceeded 1300. Well before the last week of August, when Gadhafi’s
forces were compelled to flee Tripoli, the defection of top commanders of the
Libyan army to the imperialist-backed TNC signaled at least the partial
disintegration of the army.

The TNC today "governs" most
of Libya, but it is definitely not to be excluded that yet another
long-lasting imperialist-abettedwar and occupation is in the
making. TheTripoli
Brigade and associated TNC forces, aided by the ongoing and still massive NATO
bombing campaigns, are currently engaged in street-to-street mop-up battles in
Gadhafi strongholds in Tripoli as well as in regions of the country still loyal
to the deposed dictator.

Historians have documented
some 700-plus U.S. interventions and wars, covert and overt, over the past
century or so—all to advance the interests and power of the ruling elite, who
require the constant expansion of their “spheres of influence,” today in the
name of the “War on Terror,” to sustain their competitive advantage over their
rivals. The interests of the oppressed peoples of the world haveneverbeen a factor in imperialist
calculations.

Both the Bush and Obama
administrations were more than happy to deal with the Gadhafi dictatorship as
long as the formerly left-sounding populist dictator, more recently turned U.S.
ally, was willing to open the country’s economy to foreign capital. And Gadhafi
readily acceded to IMF-dictated austerity programs, to giving a lion’s share of
and reducing the costs of Libya’s oil to Western corporations, privatization of
key industries, border guard assistance in thwarting the immigration of Black
Africans into Italy and France, and joining in the “War on Terror” and the
associated rejection of the Palestine liberation struggle.Gaddafi’s harsh repression of
dissent was never of any consequence to the Western corporations and governments
who have now conquered the nation.

TNC officials have promised
that they will honor all contracts that the Gadhafi regime made with Western
capitalists. But the Libyan catastrophe will undoubtedly result in a new race by
European and North American corporate rivals to turn a larger profit out of the
nation’s oil wealth. The BritishIndependentcommented on Aug. 24, “After five
months of fighting in the world's 12th-largest oil producer, industry figures
are acutely aware that billions could be made in the coming years from
rebuilding Libya. Immediate focus will fall on the country's oil fields that are
currently producing a 10th of the 1.6 million barrels a day that were exported
pre-revolution.”

As with the devastation in
Iraq and Afghanistan, the conquerors can be expected to seek payment for their
services and rebuild what they have destroyed via the impounded hundreds of
billions of dollars of Libyan funds that have been frozen by imperialism’s
more-than-cooperative banking and financial institutions.As the Aug. 28New York Timesso delicately noted, “With so much
uncertainty over the governance of Libya, none of the money will be given to the
rebels, but instead will go directly to pay for services [provided by
imperialism] and fuel costs.”

The U.S./NATO war began when
the Gadhafi dictatorship ordered its troops to open fire on a group of
protesting human rights activists. As with the anti-government mobilizations in
Tunisia and Egypt, this was followed by massive protests that were violently
repressed by Gadhafi’s police and military, which did not shrink from using its
still intact ground and air power to quell the deep resentment that permeated
Libyan society. Gadhafi’s decision to make amends with Sylvio Berlusconi’s Italy
and Nicolas Sarkozy’s France, in the context of world capitalism’s economic
crisis, could only be at the expense of the Libyan
masses.

In the early days of these
mass protests,there were
unmistakable but only modest indications of the independent character of at
least a portion of the anti-Gadhafi leadership, as when anti-government
protesters unfurled massive banners from rooftops, declaring, "No Foreign
Intervention: The Libyan People Can Manage It Alone." Even then, it was not
always clear whether opposition to foreign intervention referred to troops on
the ground only, since major elements of the opposition had announced early on,
and even demanded, support by U.S./NATO forces and a “no-fly
zone.”

When a team of British
secret operatives was captured by early anti-Gadhafi forces, they were summarily
deported, an indication that at least a portion of the early fighters rejected
any association with imperialist troops and other would-be
liberators.

The United National Antiwar
Coalition (UNAC) referred to the mass character of the early mobilizations
against Gadhafi when it issued its “Statement on U.S. Non-Intervention in Libya
and Other Countries,” declaring: “UNAC calls for an immediate halt to U.S.
intervention in regions and countries where mass mobilizations are challenging
oppressive regimes. “

The
statement continued, “We have seen the horrific consequences of
U.S./UN-imposed economic sanctions against Iraq, as well as the consequences of
U.S./UN operation of ‘no-fly zones’ over northern and southern Iraq, prior to
the U.S. Shock and Awe attacks and invasion.

“We therefore oppose any
form of U.S. military or economic intervention in Libya, Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia
and other countries where movements are rising in opposition to dictatorships
and military rule.” UNAC continues to oppose all U.S. intervention in
Libya, North Africa, and the Middle East more
generally.

Unfortunately, the mass and
independent character of the anti-Gadhafi mobilizations proved to be ephemeral.
They had been politically limited and poorly organized, and therefore incapable
of overcoming what rapidly devolved into a self-appointed government-like
formation consisting of assorted factions from the Gadhafi regime, including
leading political figures and top military commanders. These were supplemented
by a swath of returning capitalists with connections to imperialist forces and
representatives of assorted anti-Gadhafi tribal and fundamentalist groups.
Virtually all these “leaders” demanded and expected U.S./NATO intervention to
remove Gadhafi.

The conquest of Libya and
the division of the spoils was moved to the top of the warmakers’ agenda. Libya,
with some 3-4 percent of the earth’s known high quality, “sweet crude” oil
reserves—and an important European supplier—was slated for permanent imperialist
oversight, if not occupation. The European and American interveners brooked no
voices to warn against or denounce the savage history of foreign intervention in
the Arab world. They much preferred and selected the present mix of
pro-capitalist Libyan oppositionists, who proudly sported and mass-produced the
flag of King Indris al-Senussi, deposed by Gadhafi in 1969, and whose reign
consisted in a permanent accommodation to world
imperialism.

As we write, plans are in
the works to establish an imperialist “stabilization” force to disarm the masses
of Libyans who still retain the automatic rifles and other weapons captured from
Gadhafi forces or liberally distributed by British, French, U.S., and other NATO
forces parked at Misrata and other coastal ports. But disarming the population
might prove more difficult than the imperialists originally thought. An Aug.
31New York Timesarticle
entitled “Tripoli divided as rebels jockey over leadership” makes it clear that
plans to stabilize Tripoli, not to mention several other cities, are
uncertain.

The
Timesarticle
states: “There are growing hints of rivalry among the various brigades over who
deserves credit for liberating the city and the influence it might bring. And
attempts to name a military leader to unify the bands of fighters have instead
exposed divisions within the rebel leadership, along regional lines but also
between secularists and Islamists.

“They were all signs, one
influential member of the council said, that point to a continuing ‘power
vacuum’ in the civilian leadership of the Libyan capital. But the jockeying for
power also illustrates the challenge a new provisional government will face in
trying to unify Libya’s fractious political landscape.” The imperialist
overlords are far from certain that their initial TNC choices are reliable in
this task. As in Iraq and Afghanistan, Libya has long been divided along
fractious tribal and religious lines as well as warring bourgeois
factions.

A 70-page plan obtained and
published by theLondon
Timesembarrassed the imperial
invaders when it described their preparations for the long-term pacification of
Libya.The Timeswrote: “The plans are highly
reliant on the defection of parts of the Gaddafi security apparatus to the
rebels after his overthrow. This is likely to prove not only risky, but
controversial, with many rebel fighters determined to sweep away all vestiges of
the regime.

“The document includes
proposals for a 10,000-15,000 strong ‘Tripoli task force,’ resourced and
supported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to take over the Libyan capital,
secure key sites and arrest high-level Gaddafi supporters….” (See the reference
below to the UAE’s Blackwater mercenary death squads.)

“The blueprint contains
plans for about 5000 police officers now serving in units not ideologically
committed to the Gaddafi regime to be transferred immediately to the interim
government's forces to prevent a security vacuum. The documents claim that the
rebel groups in Tripoli and surrounding areas have 8660 supporters, including
3255 in the Gaddafi army.”

As expected, the TNC and
imperialist spokespersons everywhere promise “democratic” elections within eight
months—the same kind of elections that brought to power the various corrupt
puppet regimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Any notion of excluding Gadhafi
supporters entirely, as the Bush administration “mistakenly” did in its Iraq
“de-Baathification” program (removal of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party supporters
from all key posts in the government and army), is said to be absent in the
projected Libya scenario.

It is more than ironic that
today’s more “enlightened” occupiers seek to first physically destroy Gadhafi’s
resisting bureaucrats, generals, and soldiers and then reconstitute a new
government with at least a portion of the old. Compliant Gadhafi supporters are
expected to share power in a coalition government to supposedly avoid the kind
of schisms that continue to plague Iraq and Afghanistan. Undoubtedly, today’s
“nation builders” have no intention of including representatives of the mass of
Libya’s working class, other than as window dressing.

But imperialism’s
prevaricating diplomats nevertheless seek to paste a democratic facade on these
delicate matters. Said French foreign minister Alain Juppé, “It’s up to the
Libyans and the Libyans alone to build a new Libya, which will be a democratic
Libya.”(!) Mention of Libya four times in a single sentence certainly sends a
message. Had Juppé said instead, “It’s up to the imperialists and the
imperialists alone to build a neo-colonial Libya, which will be an autocratic
Libya.” he would have been closer to the truth.

What rapidly emerged six
months ago, in February 2011, was a patched together TNC, replete with a core of
defecting Gadhafi military and diplomatic officials and an array of Western
capitalist-connected, Libyan lawyers and “human rights” advocates largely
operating to advance the interests of the major NATO-affiliated invaders. From
the earliest announcement of this government-in-waiting, now recognized by some
57 nations and counting, not a single TNC voice has been heard to indicate
anything other than full support to and collaboration with the
imperialist-orchestrated invasion, not to mention pledged support for peaceful
negotiations between potentially competing forces as to who will get what in the
post-Gadhafi Libya.

Some of the TNC’s components
are already registering disagreements, as with the recent demonstration of
500 Misrata residents who mobilized and formally petitioned to protest the
inclusion of top Gadhafi officals in the new “government.” The TNC’s top
leaders, however, have been thoroughly briefed by imperialism’s presently silent
advisers to the effect that the new “government” must begin with the “inclusion”
of a broad range of forces to avoid future degeneration as was the case with
Iraq.

The TNC’s central leaders
include:

• Mahmoud Jibril,
present head of the new “government” and, until his early-on defection, head of
Libya’s National Economic Development Board. Jabril has spent most of his time
in Europe, rounding up support for his imperialist-created regime. He studied at
the University of Pittsburgh and served as an asset manager to the wife of the
Emir of Qatar.

• Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, chair
of the TNC and Minister of Justice under Gadhafi until he resigned to protest
the attacks on students and other protesters.

• Gen. Abdul Fattah
Younis, the TNC’s top military commander, Libya’s interior minister, a French
intelligence asset and a personal friend of Gadhafi before defecting. Younis was
likely killed by the TNC’s Muslim Brotherhood faction, also included in the new
“government.”

• Ali-al-Essawi, former
Gadhafi cabinet official and ambassador, thought to be involved in Gen. Younis’
murder.

• Khalifa Hifter, senior
commander of TNC troops, who had been living in exile in the U.S. Hifter
appointed himself the TNC’s military commander, replacing his rival,
Younis.

• Abdel Hafidh Ghogi, a
Benghazi-based human rights attorney.

• Fathi Terbil, youth
representative on the TNC and a human rights attorney, whose arrest by Gadhafi
security forces is said to have sparked the rebellion.

Most of these “leaders” are
hardened Gadhafi bureaucrats, military strongmen who defected from the Gadhafi
government, or Libyans in exile who have collaborated with U.S. officials. A few
youthful “human rights” activists may have been added to the mix to lend it a
liberal cast.

Of the TNC’s 31 members only
13 were formally announced, supposedly due to security reasons. With the TNC’s
relocation to Tripoli in late August, the number has been expanded to 40 and is
expected to rise to 80. This self-appointed body of essentially Libya’s elite
has no connection with any mass political organization of Libya’s working
masses; to the extent that these groups exist at all, they are largely in
embryonic form.

Whatever self-organization
was evidenced in the earliest days of the mass protest was essentially
spontaneous and created to organize the distribution of food and the
coordination of vital services as Gadhafi’s forces bombarded Benghazi. We have
yet to see any indication that these organizational forms gave rise to or were
based on independent political forces aiming at developing a program to advance
the interests of the masses. Nor is there evidence that they took on the task of
consolidating an alternative to the leading bourgeois and pro-imperialist
forces, which fully understood the need to rush to the “leadership” of the mass
movement.

Given the political void
among the anti-Gadhafi forces, the TNC was quickly recognized as the nation’s
“legal” government by France and Italy—with the United States, briefly
considering the feasibility of a greater military and political
role, following suit soon afterwards. The Europeans’ and Americans’ public
pretensions of “protecting civilians” from Gadhafi’s forces rapidly gave
way to their real objectives—“regime change” pure and simple. The order of the
day was Gadhafi’s removal. Inter-imperialist negotiations as to the role and
weight of Libya’s future overseers were temporarily set
aside.

The U.S./NATO intervention
and massive bombing were qualitatively intensified while TNC forces were
prepared to take Tripoli. Some 30 percent of all sorties were scheduled for the
last five days. The “rebels” were further aided by massive supplies provided by
the imperialist-backed military governments in Egypt and Tunisia. The Qatari
government served as the overt organizer and trainer of the Tripoli Brigade,
which led the assault, undoubtedly with the assistance of the Qatar-based
Blackwater mercenary death-squad forces, financed by the U.S. and based in
Qatar.

The Aug. 19Washington Postreported: “‘For months, we have been
gathering information in Tripoli and shipping weapons, money and men to the
capital,’ said Abu Oweis, the founder and deputy commander of the Qatari-trained
Tripoli brigade. ‘We are completely ready to take over,’ he added. ‘All people
there will be very happy.’”

“The brigade’s temporary
headquarters, a school building near the city of Zintan on the vast plateau of
the Nafusa Mountains, was stocked with ammunition during a visit on Thursday.
Commanders worked on laptops and used satellite phones as recruits assembled
their weapons.

“Oweis said his troops would
arrest ‘over a hundred’ high-profile Gaddafi loyalists designated as criminals
and potential troublemakers by the rebels’ Transitional National Council, which
for now is based in the city of Benghazi in eastern
Libya.

“The rebel leaders succeeded
in quickly gaining diplomatic recognition from countries around the world,
including the United States. International support, in which Qatar and the
United Arab Emirates play a key role, has given the rebels access to frozen
assets that once belonged to Gaddafi, as well as weapons deliveries from
abroad.

“Cargo planes from the
United Arab Emirates could be seen in Benghazi’s airport Monday, and rebels have
turned a slab of highway in the western mountains into a provisional airstrip
where they regularly receive cash and automatic weapons from representatives of
the Transitional National Council.”

TheWashington Postreport neglected to mention that Qatar
and the United Arab Emirates, with virtually no armies of their own, rely on
U.S.-financed Blackwater mercenary death-squad armies to defend their regimes
against “domestic unrest.” Mercenaries of the Blackwater type constitute nearly
half of the U.S. fighting forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, the largest U.S.
deployment of privatized military forces in history. Whatever pretensions the
Obama administration offers to indicate the withdrawal of some troops from Iraq
and Afghanistan are more than compensated for by the massive mercenary forces it
maintains in these countries.

The May 15New York Times, in a front-page
article entitled “Secret Desert Force Set up By Blackwater Founder,” asserted,
“The force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside andoutside the country,defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers
from terrorist attacks and put down internal revolts, the documents show. Such
troops could be deployed if the Emirates faced unrest in their crowded labor
camps or were challenged by pro-democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab
world this year” (emphasis added).

An Aug. 25Washington Postarticle by Spencer Ackerman entitled
“Tiny Qatar Flexes Big Muscles in Libya” similarly noted: “If the Persian Gulf
nation has any defense profile at all, it’s mostly for hosting thegiant al-Udeid air
base, a major transit point for U.S. troops and material heading to
Iraq and Afghanistan. But despite having very few men under arms, Qatar not only
helped keep Moammar Gadhafi’s planes grounded, it helped turn theragtag Libyan
rebelsinto a real
fighting force—and even, according to one well-placed source, played a key role
in getting them into Tripoli.”

The Aug. 23New York Timestold the same story: The “rebels”
received “steady supplies of weapons, fuel, medicine and food from British,
French and Qatari troops” as well as “an escalated bombing campaign by American
jets and Predator drones.” The Timesadded, “Hundreds of rebels took part in
secret military training in Qatar.” None of these corporate media reports dared
to explicitly state that Blackwater forces—that is, U.S.-financed mercenary
death squads, as are routinely deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq—were engaged in
combat missions in Libya. A growing body of evidence reveals that they
were.

The imperialist-led conquest
of Libya was reported in the kept media in the tradition of all imperialist
wars. Gadhafi’s forces were demonized even though he was George Bush’s praised
leader little more than a year ago. But much of the media hyperbole aimed at
justifying the U.S. war proved to say more about the TNC than it did about
Gadhafi.

The Aug. 14New York Timesarticle entitled “Waves of
Disinformation and Confusion Swamp the Truth in Libya” is revealing not so much
in its ridiculing of Gadhafi’s statements—that he would fight to the last
soldier—but rather because a few skeptical reporters provided a rare
glimpse into TNC politics. “The rebels have offered their own far-fetched
claims, like mass rapes by loyalist troops issued tablets of Viagra. Although
the rebels have not offered credible proof, their claim is nonetheless the basis
of an investigation by the International Criminal
Court.”

Furthermore, saysThe Times: “And there is the
mantra, with racist overtones, that the Qadaffi government is using African
mercenaries, which rebels repeat as fact over and over. There have been no
confirmed cases of that; supposedly there are many African prisoners of war held
in Bengazi, but conveniently journalists are not allowed to see them. There are,
however, African guest workers, poorly paid migrant labor, many of whom,
unarmed, have been labeled mercenaries.” The Timeshas referred to this anti-Black African
racism promoted by TNC spokespersons on several occasions, as if to caution the
“rebel” leaders that it counters the democratic image they have been encouraged
to promote.

What lessons can be drawn
from the impending imperialist victory in Libya? First and foremost, as the mass
mobilizations in Egypt and Tunisia and now Libya have more than amply
demonstrated, there are no shortcuts—not to mention imperialist interventions—in
defeating dictators. The construction of mass revolutionary socialist parties,
deeply rooted in the organizations and struggles of the masses for equality and
freedom, is the first prerequisite to victory. There will be no sustained
victories against capitalist regimes, liberal or dictatorial, unless these are
complemented by coordinated struggles on a regional, if not international,
basis.

Second, imperialist
interventions in all of their manifestations must be vehemently opposed. The
right of self-determination of all oppressed nations, even those led by heinous
dictators, must be supported as against imperialist interventions. Imperialism’s
defeat in any confrontation with oppressed nations weakens its capacity for
future interventions and opens the door wider for others to follow suit. While
revolutionary socialists have every right and obligation to criticize and oppose
dictatorships everywhere, these criticisms are subordinate to the defeat of
imperialist intervention and war. Revolutionaries are not neutral in such
confrontations. We are always for the defeat of the imperialist intervener and
would-be colonizer.

A critical element in the
program of the United National Antiwar Coalition is opposition to any and all
U.S. intervention. UNAC is united in organizing massive mobilizations to demand
“Bring All U.S./NATO Troops, Mercenaries and War Contractors Home Now!” Its
constituent organizations have a variety of views , which are sometimes
conflicting, on the regimes of many countries, from Iran to Libya, as well as
Iraq and Afghanistan. These differences are properly addressed by the various
constituent organizations’ publications and activities. But the basis ofunity in action, of the
united-front-type formations that are critical to the organization of the masses
to stay the hand of the imperialist warmakers, is defense of the right of
self-determination ofalloppressed nations—even those headed
by hated dictators.

We live in deeply troubled
and contradictory times—in which the worldwide capitalist offensive remains
largely unchallenged on a scale necessary to change the present relationship of
forces. But history repeatedly demonstrates that the working-class majority will
once again rise to challenge its oppressors and once again boldly pose the
question of which power shall rule—theirs, in the interest of the tiny
parasitic few orours, in
the interest of all humanity.

Today, the imperialist-led
war in Libya continues, with massive NATO bombing supporting the TNC troops’
efforts to conquer pro-Gadhafi cities. But we are compelled to recognize the
tragic truth that a severe defeat has been inflicted on the Libyan
people.To our sisters and
brothers in Libya, we can merely assert that the crisis-ridden imperialist beast
can only provide new opportunities to build fighting mass movements and the
essential mass revolutionary socialist parties capable of uniting all the
oppressed in a common struggle against imperialism and all its agents. The
Libyan masses will rise again!

In contrast to the massive
mobilizations during the Arab Spring in North Africa that forced the ouster of
hated dictators in Egypt and Tunisia, the Libyan people are saddled with an even
greater evil—direct neo-colonial intervention into their country’s
affairs.

This is not to say that the
victories won by the Egyptian and Tunisian masses are secure. Imperialism’s
satraps continue to rule in these nations in the form of the still-powerful
military regimes. The work of revolutionaries in Egypt and Tunisia is far from
completed. Indeed, it has just begun. Whatever space has been opened by the
massive mobilizations can and will be quickly closed if the still-existing
capitalist state power remains in place. The coming revolutions in Egypt and
Tunisia, and in all other nations, can only be secured with the abolition of the
capitalist system, whose inherent logic is oppression, war, and
destruction.

Today the imperialist boot
is on the ground in Libya and deeply implanted. The Libyan masses have not been
liberated. Thousands have been killed. Imperialism’s sights are now focused
on doing the same in Syria and eventually in Iran. The liberation struggle in
these countries also rests in the development of mass revolutionary socialist
parties there, not with imperialism’s “humanitarian” interventions and not with
any reliance on the present entrenched and brutal local capitalist
exploiters.

Here in the United States,
we must restate our revolutionary obligation to the world’s people to oppose our
own imperialist government and all its wars, and to warn once again that
American imperialism is incapable of serving anyone’s interests other than the
elite ruling-class few. The Obama administration is a glaring example of this
fundamental truth. It has exceeded the Bush administration in virtually every
measure with regard to the attacks on workers at home and abroad. Any illusion
that it is capable of doing otherwise will prove fatal to the coming mass
struggles that will challenge the capitalist system as never
before.

The Irish Revolution blog

This is the explanatory section to a
new blog, The Irish Revolution, which is chock full of useful and informative
historical material:

Welcome
to this blog. Its function is to provide analysis of Irish history and
contemporary Irish society from a socialist-republican standpoint, inspired by
James Connolly and the tools of analysis developed and sharpened by Marx and
Engels. Social-revolutionary republicans from Wolfe Tone to Fintan Lalor
to Michael Davitt to Padraic Pearse (and the other Easter signatories) to Liam
Mellows to Saor Eire and Republican Congress to Seamus Costello are also
important influences.

As
well as material by myself, and hopefully other contributors as the blog
progresses, it will run material from socialist-republican organisations such as
éirígí; at the same time, the blog will do whatever it can to encourage
co-operation between socialist-republican groups – such as éirígí and the
Irish Republican Socialist Party and others spread out in various currents
opposed to the Good Friday Agreement, partition and the failed states both sides
of Britain’s border in Ireland.

The
blog is based in New Zealand so it will also have the aim of promoting
solidarity across Australasia with the struggle for national liberation and
socialism in Ireland. This includes informing people here about the
continuing British occupation in the north and the attacks on workers by the
administrations on both sides of the border. Hopefully we will also be
able to get enough interest here in Australasia to organise some solidarity
actions around issues such as state repression, political prisoners and so on
and educational/solidarity gatherings, including public meetings, film showings
and talks, on aspects of the history of Irish oppression and the long struggle
for political and economic liberation.

At
present, I don’t belong to any political party in New Zealand (or anywhere
else), nor do I have any plans of joining any left groups here, although I am
part of a new left blog project in New Zealand called Redline (rdln.wordpress.com)and most of us involved in the blog
were in an organisation called the Workers Party (no relation at all to the
Stickies!). I am also an ex-member of Sinn Fein in Dublin from
1986-1994.

After
returning to New Zealand, I went to university and did postgrad work, including
an MA thesis on Irish republicanism in the 1900-1930 period. A lot of
books about that period have been published since, and the Bureau of Military
History archive of witness statements is now publicly available, so the chapters
of my thesis are a bit dated. Nevertheless there is still a lot of meaty
stuff there and so over the next month or two I will be concentrating on putting
up parts of the thesis, as well as running some current commentary and
contributed articles. Related to the thesis is that in Dublin in the late
1980s I did a lot of work gathering together the writings of Constance
Markievicz, and I will try to start getting these up on the blog as well.

I
look forward to feedback and contributions from people interested in and/or
already supportive of the struggle for Irish freedom and of Irish
socialist-republicanism in particul

Israel rocked by protests

An analysis in Britain's Weekly Worker by Moshe
Machover, who has written for New Left Review and other publications on Israeli
politics:

The Arab revolutionary awakening has rattled Israel's leaders. To lose one
major ally may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two in quick succession
looks like a disaster.

Not long before the Arab spring, Israel had seriously damaged its relations
with an important regional ally, Turkey. Having regional ambitions of their own,
Turkey's rulers were not amused by Israel's bullying on the high seas and its
truculent refusal to apologise for murdering nine Turks on board the Mavi
Marmara in May 2010. Then, by the end of January 2011, the entire Arab
world was in turmoil, and Israel was evidently about to lose its key Arab
collaborator, Hosni Mubarak. This was ominous for Israel's entire strategy as
regional hegemon, local enforcer on behalf of its global imperialist senior
partner. On the underside of this gloomy cloud, Israel's prime minister Binyamin
'Bibi' Netanyahu detected a silver lining. At least in the short term, the
decline in US control of the Arab world can be turned to Israel's advantage as a
selling point for the unique value of Israel to the west. While a revolutionary
tempest rages all around it, Israel remains tranquil, a reliable "island of
stability, economically and diplomatically" in a sea of instability. This sales
slogan was repeated as a mantra by Bibi and his hasbarah (propaganda)
machine.[1]

He spoke too soon. On July 14, eight Israeli students set up tents on
Rothschild Boulevard, in a prosperous part of Tel Aviv. They were protesting
against exorbitant rents and the unavailability of affordable mortgages. The
protests spread like wildfire. Tent cities sprang up in a much less prosperous
part of Tel Aviv, and in dozens of other towns. Demonstrations held every
Saturday escalated, including a joint Hebrew-Arab demonstration in Jaffa on
August 13,[2] and
by mid-August hundreds of thousands of Israelis marched in the streets - the
largest protest movement and most massive demonstrations in Israel's entire
history.

Very soon, the demands raised by the protestors became more general. By far
the most popular slogan, chanted and displayed on banners and posters, was "The
people demand social justice". Other popular slogans were: "The answer to
privatisation: revolution", and (my favourite): "The market is free, we are
slaves". Demands are raised for "A welfare state", for reducing indirect taxes
(VAT) and increasing direct taxes (such as income tax) on the rich.

Mutual solidarity ties have been established with current struggles: that of
the social workers who have just ended their strike - many of them frustrated
with their compromising union leadership; and the physicians, whose five-month
strike ended on August 26 and who had also set up a large tent in Rothschild
Boulevard (inhabited mainly by young interns). The substantial salary increases
conceded by the government are largely due to the social protest.

The protest is supported by 90% of Israelis. It is led mainly by students and
white-collar workers who are described by the media, somewhat misleadingly, as
'middle class'. In fact, the demands raised by them indicate that they feel they
are being proletarianised, and display solidarity with the poor. The prevailing
spirit is that of egalitarianism, self-activity and grassroots direct
democracy.

A 'Vision document', prepared and circulated by leaders of the movement,
lists six "principles", the first of which is "minimising social inequalities
(economic, gender-based and national) and creating social cohesion".[3] The
mention of "national" inequality is especially noteworthy: it refers to the
discrimination against the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel, approximately
20% of its population. Initially, this is as far as the protestors were prepared
to go on the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel's military occupation
and colonisation of Palestinian territories were deliberately not mentioned,
because this issue was felt to be too divisive.

The Israeli protests are overtly inspired by the Arab awakening, especially
by the movement in Egypt. Many posters say simply: "Mubarak, Assad, Netanyahu",
and one of the frequent chants is "Tahrir Square is here in this town" (the
Hebrew is more punchy, and it rhymes: Kikkar Tahrir - kan ba'ir). There
is much admiration for the courage of the Arab masses. A typical appreciative
remark made by an Israeli journalist: "At long last we have learnt something
from the Arabs!"[4]
During a screening in the Rothschild tent city of a video on the Cairo protests,
the crowd cheered and joined the chanting with "The people demand social
justice".

However, in content these protests are more akin to those in Greece and
Spain: the main demands are socio-economic. The political elite is excoriated
because it serves the super-rich and is indifferent to the suffering of the poor
and the anxieties of those being impoverished.

The background to this is the fundamental change in Israel's socio-economic
and political structure since the late 1970s. A proper discussion of this would
require a long essay, but here is a brief outline.

Before the change, Israel had what can be described as a heavily
subsidised, bureaucratic, state-capitalist welfare economy. This was analysed
and described in detail in an article I co-authored in 1970 with two
comrades.[5] At
that time, only half of the Israeli economy was in private hands. The rest was
equally divided between two public sectors: that of the Histadrut
(corporatist trade union federation), and the state - both dominated by the
Zionist labour bureaucracy. The internal capital accumulation (the reinvested
surplus value) was virtually zero, but there was a large, unilateral inflow of
capital: part collected, mainly in the US, by Zionist fundraising 'charities';
part as German reparations;[6] and
a growing part as US government loans and grants - payment for Israel's role as
regional watchdog. This inflow, essentially a western subsidy, was mostly
channelled through the ruling Labour bureaucracy, which allocated part for
investment in both the private and public sectors, and part for maintaining a
relatively high standard of living and public welfare, resulting in a
distribution of income that was less unequal than in most capitalist countries.
Thus Israeli society, including the working class, was directly
subsidised thanks to the regional role of the Zionist state.

The difference between then and now is dramatic. Almost everything in sight
has been privatised (including the kibbutzim, former paragons of collective
property and production, albeit ethnically exclusive). Welfare expenditure has
been drastically slashed. On the other hand, internally generated capital
accumulation is robust (even during the present global recession), but wealth is
extremely concentrated: about 40% of the economy is owned by 10 tycoon
families.[7] In
Israel's extremely harsh neoliberal economy, income distribution is highly
unequal. The Gini coefficient, a standard statistical measure of inequality,
assigns to Israel's income distribution a score of 39% - higher than that of
Egypt (34.4%). For comparison, the figures for Sweden, UK and US are 25%, 36%
and 40.8%, respectively. On another measure, the ratio between the average
income of the top 10% and that of the bottom 10%, Israel scores 13.4; in other
words, persons in the highest 10% income bracket have on average an income 13.4
times greater than the average income of the 10% bottom bracket. The
corresponding figure for Egypt is only 8 (Sweden, UK and US score 6.2, 13.8 and
15.9, respectively).[8]

Israel still receives a hefty subsidy from its imperialist senior partner.
But by far the largest part of it - US military aid of about $3 billion to $4
billion per annum - bypasses the civilian economy and underwrites Israel's
military expenditure and the expenses of colonisation. The civilian economy, of
course, benefits indirectly, because a substantial part of it is geared
to military-related and colonisation-related activity. However, Israeli workers
no longer feel that their standard of living is subsidised thanks to Israel's
regional role and its colonising ventures. On the contrary, many feel that
government spending on colonisation and pampering the settlers is at the expense
of social spending inside Israel.

Nevertheless, the protestors at first hesitated to bring up the connection
between their socio-economic demands and larger political matters, such as
occupation and colonisation. However, these issues, which were avoided because
they might be divisive, were eventually forced on them by events. When the
protests escalated, it became clear that the government would need some military
or 'security' conflagration in order to divert attention from socio-economic
conflicts and try to exploit the patriotism of the majority of protestors in
order to put an end to the movement. One such event is expected after September
20, when the Palestinian Authority is planning to seek UN recognition and
membership for the aborted, stunted embryo of the Palestinian 'state'. It is
known that Palestinian grassroots organisations are planning massive
anti-occupation protests following that date. Although these are intended to be
non-violent, Israel will no doubt respond with its customary brutality, and
raise the temperature perhaps to explosion point. This would serve as the
required diversion. But September 20 is too far away. Something more immediate
was needed, and indeed predicted. For example, radical video-blogger Lia
Tarachansky posted on August 5 a video, towards the end of which she stated that
"many predict Netanyahu will try to squash the movement by starting a military
operation". She further pointed out that indeed "Early on Thursday [August 4]
Israel escalated its air attacks on Gaza".[9]

Such escalations are a standard Israeli ploy for provoking an armed
confrontation. These air attacks, so long as they are not massive, are rarely
reported by the media, as they are considered, and claimed by Israel's hasbarah,
to be routine targeting of "terrorist bases".

Such escalations are a standard Israeli ploy for provoking an armed
confrontation. These air attacks, so long as they are not massive, are rarely
reported by the media, as they are considered, and claimed by Israel's hasbarah,
to be routine targeting of "terrorist bases".

Sure enough, two weeks later, on August 18, eight Israelis, civilians and
soldiers, were killed by persons unknown who crossed the Egyptian-Israeli border
in Sinai, near Eilat. The perpetrators were alleged by Israel to have come all
the way (about 250km) from Gaza, although no real proof was produced. And no-one
in the media thought to connect this incident with the Israeli escalation of
August 4.

Israel responded to this incident by more massive and deadly bombing of Gaza,
and, as usual, Palestinian militants responded with missiles shot into Israeli
towns. Though unguided, these missiles caused some damage, killed one Israeli
civilian and injured several others. So here we have it: escalating military
clashes, as per requirement.

Did it work for Bibi? Not really. The protesters decided not to cancel the
next demonstration, scheduled for August 20. But as a mark of respect for the
victims of the August 18 incident, a majority decision was for holding a silent,
torchlit march. In addition to the usual social and economic demands, the silent
protestors carried anti-war slogans, such as "No to the war of peaceful
[ministerial] armchairs" (a reference to Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon,
whose official name was the oxymoron, 'War for the peace of Galilee'), and "Jews
and Arabs refuse to be enemies". In that march, red flags outnumbered
blue-and-white national ones.

Members of a small, sectarian Trotskyist group chanted slogans against war
and the arms industry. This was resented by the vast majority, including many
leftwing radicals, not because of the content of the chants (which was only
opposed by a few rightists) but because that group ignored the majority decision
to keep the march silent.[10]

In the mass meeting at the end of the march - held while the sectarians were
standing apart from the crowd of demonstrators, and shouting their slogans - one
of the speakers was an Arab from the Galilee. He told the crowd about a
demonstration of solidarity with the movement that had taken place in the Arab
town of Arabeh that same day, and was received with applause. He went on to
speak about the problems in the Arab sector, saying these should be part of the
protest - applause again. That was too much for 10-15 rightwingers who tried to
burst forward and silence him. Quietly but firmly, members of the crowd stopped
them; and then the crowd numbering 5,000 or more started chanting in response:
"Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies".

It is doubtful whether military provocations will put a stop to the protests.
However, it is quite likely that the movement will split into at least two
camps. One will continue to avoid 'political' issues. The more radical camp will
make the connection explicitly. One thing is certain: Israel is no longer
socially tranquil. Class struggle is on the agenda.

Notes

'PM calls Israel an "island of stability" in the region'
Jerusalem Post January 31 2011. "During his meeting with Merkel, and
in a subsequent press conference, Netanyahu stressed the fact that Israel is
the only stable country in the Middle East and therefore the west must bolster
ties with it. 'We are an island of stability in the region,' Netanyahu told
Merkel" (Haaretz February 1 2011). "Israel is lucky its prime
minister is Netanyahu, who is experienced and has made Israel an island of
stability and security - economically and diplomatically" (Indy News
Israel February 9 2011).

See www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT7RkhwOqQs.

Haaretz August 9 2011.

This remark was reviled by Tony Greenstein as "racist", on
the grounds that "Arabs have always had a great deal to teach Israel's Jews"
('Support the Israeli protest movement without illusions' Weekly
Worker August 11). The journalist, of course, did not deny this; she only
expressed satisfaction that Israelis are finally prepared to learn. Sadly,
comrade Tony is unable to see the difference.

Letter from Finland [Jyri]

We welcome Jyri's positive comments about
this country and its people. Good words are needed in these times.
Early this morning, in writing to a relative of mine, I commented -- as I often
do -- that "I still think most of humanity is pretty good most of the
time." But sometimes it does takes a little effort to muster
that. (H)

Hunter,

Following the US political scene from afar,
and with the help of your recent comments, I can only say that you
really have the pick of the crop in some quarters. Scary seems to be the
default mode. And yet yours is a great country with great potential and lots of
decent people. I always say that the Yank-bashers that I come
across.

The Euro mess with the Greeks continues.
The Finnish gov't is calling for securities for their share of the support,
which for the rest of the European elites is synonomous with rocking
the boat. They're scared other EU countries will follow suit, thus upsetting the
delicate balance of helping the banks. I'm no economist,but it's not a bad idea
per se, though the rhetoric gets out of hand. Populist leader Timo
Soini (True Finn Party, who've renamed themselves The Finns in English
translation - a case of outright sacrilege if there was one) jokingly
suggested the island of Crete as collateral, and half the idiots here believed
him, most of them in his party. Complex fellow, in some ways better than his
followers.

On the personal front, this is the
time of year when we get our tax decisions, known here as the "finalization of
taxation".Ours came early this year, and I have to
say that either God is on my side, or then I'm in league with the devil without
my knowing it. The Helsinki Region Tax Office decided to give me a sizeable
refund on my prepaid taxes for 2010. I'm a bit cautious
about it. One year, they sent me three finalization statements for the
previous year, correcting their sums each time. I didn't expect this much, but
now that I recalculated everything according to the official decision I
discovered that the refund is actually about 50 euros too small. The
question now is whether I really need to make an official complaint
about it and risk winding up with someone, possibly a young person new on the
job and eager to prove their mettle, going through my stuff with a fine comb?
Methinks not....

Warm autumn here, plenty of rain. Good
mushroom crop in the woods. The mallard shooting season is starting soon.
I'll be joining a couple of friends for that, for the first time in many
years. It's been ages since I've had the chance to spit shot out
of my mouth while eating mallard stew. The last times were with my late
father-in-law, who may be in a different place but definitely hunting. That
much I know.

Our Lair of Hunterbear website is now almost 12
years old. Itcontains a great deal of primary, first-hand material on
NativeAmericans, Civil Rights Movement, union labor, and
organizingtechniques -- and much more. Check it out and its vast
numberof component pieces. The front page itself -- the initial
cover page -- has about 36 representative links.www.hunterbear.org

In our Gray Hole, the ghosts often dance in the
junipers and sage, on the game trails, in the tributary canyons with the
thick red maples, and on the high windy ridges -- and they dance from
within the very essence of our own inner being. They do this especially
when the bright night moon shines down on the clean white snow that
covers the valley and its surroundings. Then it is as bright as
day -- but in an always soft and mysterious and remembering way.
[Hunter Bear]

__._,_.___

"[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt."
--Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31

NOTES ON OUR LAIR OF HUNTERBEAR WEBSITE (9/2011)

As I've been prone to say,
"I was born from the Four Directions and things have always been
interesting."

When we launched our Lair
of Hunterbear website on February 14, 2000, our primary aim at that point was to
publicize the blatantly surreal harassment by so-termed "lawmen" and
racists and others that greeted us just as soon as we arrived
here in Idaho in the summer of 1997 -- and to correct a flood of poisonous
canards, many of these stemming from open and covert enemies from my
past social justice campaigns. (My conversion to computer technology and the
concept of a website took a little time -- but I soon embraced all of that
about as fast as Geronimo seized his 1876 Winchester lever action.] A
few months after we launched the website, I published
this:

"In the waning days of
2000 / Eastern Idaho

I became a
radical activist when I was still very young -- quickly growing into
a radical activist/organizer/writer -- and, very early on indeed, I
learned the accuracy of the old Native saying, "When you fish for trout, expect
to be bitten by mosquitoes." Forthwith, I also learned the great merit in
the old-time Wobbly (Industrial Workers of the World) adage, "Better to be
called Red than be called Yellow" -- and I've always held very firmly to that
and I always will. I could write a very large book about the things I've been
called over these many decades -- variants of Red-baiting plus all
sorts of other epithets -- sometimes openly by "class enemies" ["goons, ginks,
and company finks" etc] but often in surreptitious and clandestine fashion by
whispering cowards who scurry about in the shadows -- usually trying to find
dupes to carry their skull & crossbones potions. As virtually all of
you are aware -- or will be -- this Website carries an enormous amount of
data regarding myself, my family background (including genealogy), my radical
vision and activities and work and writings, and a hell of a lot more. It
also very much involves the hopes and social justice aspirations and the
courage of many others. This all puts us in very clear perspective.
I learned long ago that accuracy corrects calumny but it usually doesn't bring
personal justice. The social justice trail can have more challenges than
the Grand Canyon but I have no absolutely no regrets. I've always heeded
the Wobbly adage, "Keep Fighting!" -- and I always will. Fortunately, I
am, as an adversary once commented, "a pretty big
thug."

I also firmly believe that most of
Humanity is pretty good most of the time.

Fraternally/In Solidarity - Hunter
Gray "

And, in time, our original goals -- fighting
harassment and smear stuff -- have largely been accomplished. We are still
right here on the 'way up, far western edge of Pocatello, Idaho. But
I always have a loaded firearm or two at ready, though discreetly out of
sight.

As the Hunterbear website developed, I began
to heed the advice of many students and others over many years indeed. I
commenced to write my many decades of various stories (and
accompanying lessons) from my often turbulent experiences -- most of
which stem from direct, grassroots activist community organizing. And the
website grew far, far beyond its original purposes to the point that it now
contains several hundred pages. Its topical range involves Native rights,
the Civil Rights Movement, union labor, civil liberties, organizing techniques.
There is also much on the American West -- and some
other things. Almost all material is first hand primary in
nature -- from my own experiences and direct observations -- and
much is contemporary. And there are often the informed comments
by readers.

Native Americans, social justice
activists, academics of all sorts, labor organizers, researchers and writers --
all of these and much and many more, nationally and internationally, visit our
Site with frequency. We also receive questions which we answer.

The website's Directory/Index,
which drops like a vertical shaft, is the trail to all of our stuff.
(Occasionally, in the Directory/Index, there is some duplication of titles, but
just keep going -- down.) Most of the material is found high up on
Google and other major search engines. If you can't find what you're
looking for, type in the subject and just add Hunterbear -- and odds are
you'll get it right away. (Sometimes we ourselves use Google as a quick
index.)

Because the Directory has grown
long and large, we have recently listed, for convenience, three dozen of
our representative links on the very front cover page of the website: www.hunterbear.org Those front page
links often carry a number of pertinent referral links.

The website and our entire
system is protected by full scale Norton and Malwarebytes. There are also a
couple of systemic things from our computer's
manufacturer.

Our Lair of Hunterbear website is now almost 12
years old. Itcontains a great deal of primary, first-hand material on
NativeAmericans, Civil Rights Movement, union labor, and
organizingtechniques -- and much more. Check it out and its vast
numberof component pieces. The front page itself -- the initial
cover page -- has about 36 representative links.www.hunterbear.org

In our Gray Hole, the ghosts often dance in the
junipers and sage, on the game trails, in the tributary canyons with the
thick red maples, and on the high windy ridges -- and they dance from
within the very essence of our own inner being. They do this especially
when the bright night moon shines down on the clean white snow that
covers the valley and its surroundings. Then it is as bright as
day -- but in an always soft and mysterious and remembering way.
[Hunter Bear]

__._,_.___

"[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt."
--Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31

After more than one and a half years of discussions with the FT-CI, RIO is
joining as sympathizing sections in Germany and the Czech Republic La Verdad
Obrera (newspaper of the PTS, Argentinian section of the FT-CI), interviewed
Wladek Flakin and Stefan Schneider about this advancement in the relationship to
the FT.

LVO: How did RIO emerge?

Wladek: RIO (the Revolutionary Internationalist Organization) was founded in
January 2010 by the independent youth organization REVOLUTION, with presence in
Germany and the Czech Republic, which for three years had tried to build an
independent Trotskyist youth organization, primarily working with high school
students, with a partial work at universities and a pioneering work in the
workers’ movement. However, our theoretical-political accumulation and our
experiences were insufficient to build up an organization at a national and
international level, given our limited program, our low level of theoretical
elaboration on major international issues and our unclear practice of
internationalism. Realizing this was not easy, it was necessary to go through
several experiences, some of them very negative, in order to recognize the need
to build up a serious cadre organization with a scientific program and a
professional structure.

Stefan: As a first step in this direction, we decided to discuss intensively
with some of the Trotskyist tendencies in order to define our program. While
discussions with other tendencies led to important programmatic differences, our
discussions with the Trotskyist Fraction – Fourth International (FT-CI) revealed
broader agreements that gave us a basis for more profound discussions.

LVO: How did the relationship with the FT-CI and the process of
discussions begin?

Wladek: The relationship with the FT consisted fundamentally in collaboration
with the comrades of the FT in Germany, organized around the magazine
"Internationaler Klassenkampf" (IK). As we increasingly understood the
possibility that a new epoch was opening, with the end of the bourgeois
restoration as expressed in the international economic crisis we have been
witnessing for the last four years, we recognized the necessity (not abstractly,
but very concretely) of the reconstruction of a revolutionary workers’
international. Based on that, we began discussions with the comrades of IK about
the bourgeois restoration and the reconstruction of the Fourth International,
among other things.

Stefan: In addition, as we advanced in programmatic agreements, we also tried
to intervene jointly in students’ and workers’ struggles (the few that have
occurred in Germany, such as the student strike of 2009 in Berlin, where we
organized solidarity from students for a struggle of university workers and
carried out the only worker-student assembly at a national level) and draw the
lessons from the struggles that took place at an international level such as the
protests of the "French Autumn", the Arab spring and the "indignant" movement in
the Spanish State. In this way, we could also advance in our criticism of the
principal reformist and centrist tendencies at an international level, who are
also our main competitors in Germany and the Czech Republic.

Wladek: The biggest step in this direction was a summer school with comrades
from RIO and the FT from Germany, the Czech Republic, France, the Spanish State
and the United Kingdom, with intense discussions on the situation
internationally and in the countries where we work. Thus, we could advance in
the political and economic characterization of Europe in the context of the
international crisis as a basis for the concrete perspectives for building up
our groups.

LVO: What does it mean for you to advance as a sympathizing section
of the FT-CI?

Stefan: Firstly, we can say that we have much work ahead of us, for example
in the characterization of the regimes both in one of the most important
imperialist countries in the world and in a former deformed workers’ state, or
the recovery of the Trotskyist tradition in these countries. If we advance in
that, we believe it will also mean a qualitative step for the FT as a whole. In
addition, there is the need to translate the strategic-programmatic arrangements
we have with the FT into a concrete orientation, both for Germany and the Czech
Republic. That should be expressed in the conquest of a stronghold at the
university in order to form a student movement with cadres capable of
intervening in the political struggle between the different tendencies and with
an orientation towards the working class, to begin to recover the tradition of
worker-student unity.

Wladek: We see today, in different countries – both central and semi-colonial
ones – and with many inconsistencies, the awakening of a new fighting youth,
which – considering the subjective backwardness caused by the bourgeois
restoration – in one way or another is increasingly challenging the governments.
Perhaps the most profound expression of this so far is the case of Chile, where
large sections of the youth want to fight together with the workers’ movement to
overthrow the privatizing post-Pinochet regime. We understand that young people
throughout history have again and again acted as a precursor to more intense
class struggles and could even play a role in the emergence of more radical
workers’ movements. Hence we see the need to build up our organization in the
student movement in order to forge a revolutionary pole from which to intervene
in the workers’ movement, since we do not yet have an insertion in the working
class.

Stefan: We are talking about the first steps in a series of preparatory tasks
for a future explosion of the class struggle. We think that with the greater
experience of the FT in the political struggle both in the students’ movement
and in the workers’ movement, we can advance in that direction in Germany and
the Czech Republic, and in this way, contribute to the reconstruction of the
Fourth International as the world party of socialist revolution.